Cullen | 2 Months Old!

I can't believe he is 2 months old already. No big photoshoot this month just a monthly picture. such a big change from last month - he actually has hair on top!

And since I knew I'd have the camera out, AND because there are so many beautiful leaves outside. I tried to dress Caleb cute so I could get some fall pictures of him.

I love this boy!

Fall Family Getaway

For the past 3 years we have gone "up north" to traverse city to visit Tony's family. They live a couple blocks from Lake Michigan in a super cute little town called Elk Rapids. In the past we have stayed right there with Tony's Uncle, Aunt and Cousin. This year since we are a family of 4 and quite the handful we decided to stay at Great Wolf Lodge. We also went up a day earlier than we normally do so we could get 3.5 days of fun in! We got an awesome deal on a great room, thanks to friends of the family. Caleb had his own cabin inside of the hotel room complete with his own TV - he just thought that was awesome.

As soon as we got up there we went straight to the waterpark. Caleb had a blast in the many pools and lots of different big water slides. My mother in law went up with us and she helped out a lot with Cullen so we could spend some quality time with Caleb. We didn't get to many pictures taken at the hotel but really that's cause we were so busy having so much fun. Between the waterpark and the dragon slaying it was a trip Caleb will remember for a long time. I even got a pedicure while we were there.

Saturday we spent the day with Tony's family. We went down on the penisula, walked by Lake Michigan and just had a good time.

Caleb

Seems like the posts lately have centered around Cullen lately, today we planned a play date with my neice and nephew, Amber and Austin. Caleb absolutely LOVES them and can't get enough time with them. They got to enjoy a nice day outside in our backyard.

Catching up on Cell Phone Pics

I seem to be snapping pics on my cell phone a lot lately, it's always there when the kids do something cute, or when we are out and about. So I thought hey I'm taking these pictures, the world (or my world rather) deserves to see them too!! So here they are.

Here's Cullen at 15 days old, we weighed him on our home scale and he came in at 10 lbs, we weren't sure how accurate it was but you can definitely see the chunk beginning!

18 days old with the blanket I made him!

19 Days old with his etsy, little bug, shirt!

23 Days old sucking his thumb...

1 Month Old!! It was the perfect evening for a walk!

My Bugs...

So before Cullen was born I convo'ed an etsy seller about making up shirts for the boys. I saw something she did for another customer and decided I wanted something like it just customized for my boys. I love how they came out. unfortunately its cold outside so I decided to take these pictures inside the house. I'm hoping Cullen can still fit into his shirt later this month when we go up to traverse city. I'd love to get some pictures of the boys outside in the shirts!!

1 Month

One month has passed since Cullen entered our lives and changed them forever. He is such a sweet boy, although he doesn't do much more than eating and sleeping and crying a little. Caleb loves him so much and loves to help take care of him. The first thing he asks in the morning is if he can hold his baby brother. Our weekend mornings have turned into the 4 of us cuddling up in bed together and just being together.


I probably mentioned before that pretty much ALL Cullen does is Eat and Sleep, and I don't exaggerate one bit!! Since I nurse him I held out giving him a pacifier for 4 weeks, he just got to try one in the past week and he's not entirely sure he likes them. I wanted to hold out the recommended 6 weeks like I did with Caleb but Cullen just needs to suck SO MUCH! He can't possibly be THAT hungry right? I have been a human pacifier for sure!


Well the doctor confirmed what I had been thinking all month, and he proved what I had been saying that he was eating A LOT. Cullen is for sure my chunky monkey!! He weighed in at 11 lbs even and 23 inches long. When he left the hospital he was under 7 lbs at just 6 lbs 14 oz. So in 1 month he gained 4 POUNDS! WOW, they say that a baby gains about an ounce a day in the first month, that would be about 2 lbs, he gained double. He went from the 25 percentile in both weight and height to the 85 percentile!!


And now for the picture!! Oh and you will also notice that he is totally balding!! I'm pretty sure blond hair is filling in on top, I wonder if it will be curly like his big brothers?!

26 Days Old

I've been DYING to take outdoor newborn portraits. Since I didn't get around to it this past summer, I thought I'd use my own newborn to give it a try. But its fall here and not exactly warm all the time. Well today was WARM!! Woot Woot!! Unfortunately it was also windy, I had a toddler at home, and noone here to help me. Also my newborn isn't so much a sleepy newbie. Hmm this creates some obstacles.

Caleb went down for a good nap - Obstacle 1 defeated :)

Wind - well there were some breaks in the winds but not much so I decided to just go for it. I got my basic set up and my camera set up then, when the next break in the wind came I ran out with Cullen and snapped like 10 frames. WOOO I got 1 usable image from those frames. No he was NOT asleep :( bummer but in between stretches and a little bit of fussiness he calmed down for a split second and I got the shot. You would never know any of that from looking at this image, I LOVE IT!!!

21 Days Old

I can't believe 3 weeks have already passed. We are getting into a good stride with our family of 4. This past week we started taking Caleb back to 'schoool' 2 days a week. Sure I'm home now and I could very well keep him at home with me, some people would wonder why on earth I would send him to daycare. Well first of all, I still have to pay for it even when he doesn't go. Money isn't the only reason, its not even the main reason. The main reason is Caleb grows and grows developmentally around the other kids his age. He learns so much just from playing and interracting with them. PLUS, he's a big mama's boy. Caleb doesn't do well when I first drop him off at daycare and I thought that if he had a 4 month break from it, it would be very hard for him to go back cold turkey. It breaks my heart to see him cry when I drop him off, I can't imagine what it would be like having to go back to work and dropping off my newborn AND my first born who will certainly cry a lot.

So anyway I am pretty sure Caleb is having a blast at school (after the initial tears). It gives him a break from his brother and not being the center of attention. Today we went out as a family to the cider mill. the weather was great, it was sunny and comfortable outside, not to cold but definitely with Fall in the air.

Of course I had to bring my camera and I got a couple shots of both my kids. I cannot express how much I love these boys. I'm so lucky to have them, and they are so lucky to have each other.

16 Days Old

Time is really flying by but we are enjoying every minute of it. Tony had a short stay at the hospital for his pneumonia, but the IV meds seem to have helped him a lot. So now he is just resting at home to get back to 100%. I'm not sure what it is about us but we seem to have issues with post partum. I'm lucky to have fantastic pregnancies but so far I'm 0/2 with post partum.

Cullen is 16 days old today, I decided to do an improptu photo session. 16 days old is a little old to be getting cuddly sleepy pictures but since he's such a great baby we pulled it off.

Week 1 as a family of 4

Wow, the week has flown by and with the help of family we got through it. Our first few days were uneventful. Cullen slept pretty good for a newborn, gave us some solid hours of sleep, well that and my mom was super helpful. She stayed the nights with us that first week to hold Cullen and lull him to sleep in between feedings.

Here are some Cell phone pictures of Cullen's first few hours. I LOVE HIM!

On our way home!!

Here's Cullen at only 2 days old, fresh from the hospital (or hobstible if you ask Caleb).

When Cullen was 6 days old we went to his first BBQ at our friends house, he got to meet a lot of our close friends and there were lots of little kids running around to play with Caleb. It was great for Caleb to get to interact with other kids for a while.

Later that evening Tony started to feel a little bad, we later found out that he came down with pneumonia. UGH it was rough but we got through it.

And without further ado - I introduce Cullen Robert - 7 days old:





And his birth announcement.